Opera in one act. Premiere recording
Brad Cooper (tenor), Mattijs van de Woerd (baritone) & Amaryllis Dieltiens (soprano) Siren Ensemble, Henk Guittart Siren Song, by the British composer Jonathan Dove, is a chamber opera about the longing for love and the
susceptibility to deception, which here receives its world premiere recording. Dove is best known for his operas,
including Flight, which also received its premiere recording on Chandos and was applauded by the critics. The recording was made live at performances that took place at the 2007 Grachtenfestival in Amsterdam, where
Dove was the composer-in-residence. The Siren Ensemble, specially formed for these performances, consists of ten
young, talented musicians, most of whom have appeared at the festival in previous years. The Australian tenor Brad
Cooper, who recently made his ENO debut in The Coronation of Poppea and will shortly appear in La traviata for
the Nationale Reisopera in The Netherlands, takes the lead role of Davey. Henk Guittart, best known for his work
as the violist of the Schoenberg Quartet, conducts.
The opera is based on a bizarre, true story. A young sailor on HMS Ark Royal exchanges letters with a beautiful
and successful model personally unknown to him, yet with whom he becomes infatuated. Over time a romantic and
passionate relationship develops, yet a meeting is increasingly difficult to arrange and Davey proves to be the
victim of an elaborate deception. The composer writes, ‘When I first came across the true story which inspired
Siren Song, I knew it had to become an opera. What initially appears to be a simple story of a sailor duped by a
con-man turns out to have surprising depths… it is a story about the power of the imagination, and how we invent
the people we love’. The Almeida Opera in London liked the idea, and commissioned Dove to write it. In 1994
Siren Song played to packed houses, received rave reviews, and attracted considerable attention. For Opera Now
Rachel Connolly wrote, ‘The closely-woven, almost minimalist texture of Siren Song never once lacks dramatic
momentum. The musical language is immediately accessible, belying, one suspects, a complexity of rhythm and
harmony… If I was planning on introducing a beginner to opera, this is one I would choose’, while Alexander
Waugh, in the Evening Standard, had this to say, ‘Siren Song is decidedly the most enjoyable contemporary opera I
have seen for a very long time’. Of this production, Dove writes, ‘I was thrilled with the Grachtenfestival
performances, staged with eloquent simplicity by Jim Lucassen and beautifully conducted by Henk Guittart. And I
am delighted that, thanks to Chandos, Diana can once more be heard luring unwary sailors to their destruction’. “This recording, made at last summer's production at the Amsterdam Grachtenfestival, is expertly paced, and Dove's Adams-inspired sound-world is evocatively conjured up by the small chamber ensemble.
The live nature of the recording does mean that some of the singing sounds too backward in the aural picture, but Brad Cooper's besotted Davey comes across well, as do the wily persuasive powers of Mattijs van de Woerd's conman.” The Telegraph, 17th May 2008 “Dove’s score is fluent and eclectic, and he evokes place and feeling with pinpoint accuracy. The cast is excellent, as is the playing of the purpose-built Siren Ensemble under Guittart.” Sunday Times, 27th April 2008 *** “Jonathan Dove's one acter, first given by Almeida Opera 14 years ago, is a gem of a piece from a composer who rarely puts a foot wrong in the opera house. Henk Guittart conducting the Siren Ensemble… relishes the simple subtleties of Dove's score: from the arresting opening, with an insistent xylophone over dark rising chords, to the echoes of a Gamelan Orchestra and shimmering bell-like sounds, when Davey the sailor lands respectively in Singapore and Bali. Brad Cooper is magnificent as the innocent sailor.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2008 ***** “Not since Benjamin Britten has a British composer succeeded in writing operas which communicate with such clarity and coherence to their audience as those by Jonathan Dove. …the opera's rapid descent into the depths of deceit and desperation is effectively portrayed.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2008 | 
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